The problem
Bell Lax acted in a shareholder dispute for a director who had been excluded from a local multimillion pound company he had built up since he left school. Although the director owned 50% of the shareholding in the company, the other two directors refused to allow him to participate in board meetings or to pay him a salary.
The director, his accountant and his former solicitors had tried to negotiate exit terms with the company over a number of years. However, the other directors were not prepared to allow our client to have a say in running the company, to purchase his shares or to sell the company as a going concern to a third party.
The solution
Bell Lax presented an unfair prejudice petition against the directors and the company. Following an initial court hearing and a mediation, the directors agreed to purchase our client’s shares for their face value without any element of a discount and to repay some of the additional salaries they had paid themselves. The directors also agreed to pay our client’s legal costs.
